Mari and Dave

The last O-cup I did was May 2009 at Albion Hills.  After that memorable race I took a break from the O-Cup series.  My plan last year was to prepare and ride the O-Cup series again this year but my training plan fell apart after having H1N1 twice this winter along with the Norwalk Virus and to top it off, an ear infection.  Needless to say, my goals were delayed by a couple of months.

So finally I was ready to do the O-Cups again and Kelso was the lucky venue.  Brilliant day and fun, fun course.  And a fast course. Had a full house in the womens SS category: Shannon, Kim and myself.  Shannon was off like a shot and ended up with a 5 minute gap!  Amazing.  There was just no way I could catch her.  On the second climb of the escarpment, while I was trying to get my lungs back into my chest, I looked back and saw Kim coming up the hill.  Damn, she is going to make me work for this second place!  I hit the top and gave everything I had left to hold onto second.

It was fun time pushing the limits and being back in the race scene.

Busted. Here is Max taking advantage of us being out of the house. He has been jumping up on the couch at every opportunity!

On the Sunday the weather was perfect for riding a mountain bike.  Dave & I decided last minute to race the Canal Days Mountain Bike Race run out of Port Colborne by the Short Hills Cycling Club.  We have never ridden these trails and were looking forward to trying something new.  We were also looking forward to seeing the Vegan Vagabond again.  Our paths do not cross much with our schedules and locations.

The course was great.  Lots of singletrack with rocks, drops, bridges, off-camber sections and tight corners.  I was suffering some mechanical problems heading into the race.  I know. I know.  Singlespeeds are not to have mechanical problems!  I somehow managed to get two!  My crank arms were rattling around in the bottom bracket and then my rear brake wasn’t working. Following a very quick fix in the parking lot about 20 minutes before the start of the race (thanks Dave!), I got the rear brake to work by squeezing the lever right up against the bar.  No modulation.  Just off or on.

As the race proceeded my brake got worse.  Then the cranks started rattling even more.  And then to top it off, a bee flew down my bra and stung me on the chest.  That was the final straw.  As fantastic as the course was, I had to DNF after the first lap.  Overall though I had a great day riding and spending it with Kim and Marc and Tanya (and Dave, of course).  Thanks guys.

Here’s Kim & I heading down one of the many short, steep hills.  Notice my right hand is completely clenched around my brake lever and handlebar!

We did it!  We grew something.  Now what do we do with it?

If you haven’t heard from Dave in a while, this may be the reason why!

Just last year Hamilton invested some money into rejuvenating Victoria Park.  They pulled out a bunch of old trees and planted over a hundred native trees.  A paved path was put in that circled the whole park.  There is a play ground, a splash pad, a pool, tennis courts, basketball courts and a baseball diamond.  With the rejuvenation, the city put in an area for a community garden.  As you could imagine the 25 plots were snatched up really fast.

Dave called two weeks ago and was put on the waiting list.  26th on the waiting list.  See once you have a plot, you could, if you wanted, have that plot for the rest of your life.  So we thought that our chances were slim to none to getting moved up on the waiting list.  To our surprise, barely a week later we got a call telling us there was a plot available if we wanted.  Of course!  We’ll take it!

We then dashed around the city buying up all the mature vegetables plants we could find!  We planted about 18 tomato plants which I think is quite a lot.  Any good recipes for salsa out there?

• every town has some old folks that will glare at you with faces that look like they have been sucking lemons;
• six well equipped touring cyclists passing through a small country town caused many to stare;

  
  

• Rob, our superstar navigator, somehow managed to have us to ride uphill to enter a town and uphill to leave it. Ok figure that one out! .

  
  

• car and scooter drivers are incredibly tolerant and considerate to cyclists. We would get honks of encouragement and honks of warning.

  
  

• In every town we would see a stray dog confidently walking along the sidewalk with an air of importance. We could never figure out where the dogs were going.
• The town of Tarifa had the highest number of “petable” dogs.
• The birds (pigeons and sparrows) are quite aggressive when you sit on the patio. They would swoop in quite close to your head and then boldly walk right under the table between your feet.
• The Sierra Nevada’s are big mountains.

  
  

• Stopping for lunch at a small town cafe, you will see the “help” run out to the grocery store right after you placed your order. The food was always good.
• This part of Spain is known for it’s Serrano Ham yet we never saw a single pig farm in our travels. Where do they hide them?
• Each hotel has a rating on it’s front door. The one and two stars hotels were quite good.

  
  

• Watching the morning migration of the older folk walking down the street in front of our hotel in Lanjaron on their way to the “healing waters” baths. They all carried an almost empty plastic grocery bag.
• Most stores shut down in the afternoon, around 2pm. Some of them opening again at 5pm or 6pm or 8pm. In some cases they would reopen whenever they felt like it.
• Roman ruins everywhere but hard to find as modern buildings surround the ruins.
• Lots of people fully kitted out on mountain bikes. Curious to find out more about the mountain bike trails.
• Discovered a new ride food: fresh ginger cake slathered with butter and topped with two thin squares of chocolate. And it tasted sooooo good as we were walking our bikes up a steep, loose gravel road through the Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves.
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• Only lizards, goats and crazy cyclists travel through the high road passes of the Parque Natural Sierra de las Nieves.
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• In one day, you can cycle in three different countries: Great Britain (Gibraltar) to Spain to Morocco (Tanger).
• The ferries between Spain and Tanger are never on time.
  

  
  

• Gibraltar was like a “frozen in time” piece of Britain with the most fascinating mix of accents.
  

  
  

• Thank goodness the medina (old town) in Tanger was built on the side of hill so when we were disoriented we were able to find our own way out. Just head down the hill.
  

Our fellow travelers on this adventure also have posted some blogs entries.  Have a look at: Rob’s and Jennie and Rich’s websites.

Finally the day arrived for us to be heading to Granada.

Granada is famous for the Alhambra – a large moorish castle that was build in the 1300’s. It is known for it’s Islamic architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tickets to tour the actual castle were purchased about three weeks prior to our departure to Spain as it can sell out. So for the first time in our bike tour, we had a time schedule to keep: Alhambra 2pm.

The ride into Granada was short. About 40km. Once in the town we rode through major construction and this is where my heart skipped a beat. As we tried to negotiate the crazy detours and the roundabouts, we lost Dave. We circled back. Nope. Couldn’t find him. My heart was racing. I was reassured that Dave would be ok as he had a GPS. That part was fine but he didn’t have the co-ordinates for the hotel. Damn.

So sticking to schedule the five of us headed on up to the Alhambra for 2pm.  Lo and behold there was Dave waiting for us by the front gates! I had lost Dave for about 2 hours and was sure happy to have him back.

For the couple days prior to entering Granada, we were travelling through small towns where tourists were not common. So going to the Alhambra I was a bit taken aback by suddenly being surrounded by other tourists. We found that the Brits seemed to stand out a bit more than the others by the pasty whiteness of their skin. Could spot them a mile away!

I want that tiling for the backsplash in my kitchen!

This is one small panel of a much larger wall.

More detail of the carving

What might that be?                                      The prettiest street light cover I have ever seen.

Now that is an ice cream display!                                                   A street scene in Granada.

We learned on our cycling trip through Spain that everyone (I mean everyone) takes in a siesta in the afternoon.

Some canine friends watching Dave pass.  Did you figure out that this road was quiet for vehicle traffic?

Or: To the mountains! Which one it is, is left to interpretation. The Spanish word: Loma = mountain or Lomo = porkchop. The mountains became less daunting when we called them “porkchops”, so we did.

a view of my villa ( I wish ) and the Mediterranean

Now we are back from Spain and finally had a chance to upload our photos. Between Dave & I, there are over 500 photos. With this accumulation of photographs, there will be several blog entries just to get the good photos posted on the site!

For the first of our two week bicycle trip, there were six of us. At the midway point, Jennie & Richard returned to Sweden and the remaining four continued on. The first half of the trip had us heading east of our base city: Malaga. For the second half we headed north and west and then south to Morocco.

The cathedral in Malaga

My café solo and fresh churros for breakfast.  Such good coffee.

continuing along the coast while keeping an eye to the mountains

The first day was flat along the coast which was a great way to overcome some jet lag. Unfortunately this could not last as we turned north and headed into the Alpujarras of the Sierra Nevada. The Alpujarras are these whitewashed towns tucked up in the top of the valleys. Quite breathtaking. Our goal was to ride to Trevélez, the highest inhabited town in Spain. After about four hours of straight up climbing in the midday sun, we made it. After a well deserved rest, we started the descent into Lanjaron. What a great reward for the hard work of the day.

Those snow capped mountains behind us are the Sierra Nevadas

How to recover from the first day of climbing.  These beers cost 1.20€ each.

Sangria! When in Rome…

Breakfast in Orgiva before our big climb day

That is Trevélez – tucked in amongst the Sierra Nevadas